TODD Hazelwood has had his battles in his debut Supercars season with his rookie Supercars team, but for him it is still a dream come true.
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It means he gets to compete in the race he grew up watching – the Bathurst 1000 – as a fully fledged championship driver.
"It's the race that every kid dreams to be a part of and now to actually be part of it and racing here with a team full-time, it's definitely living the dream so to speak,” the 23-year-old said.
“Hopefully one day I will be able to etch my name into the Peter Brock Trophy.
“Every day we wake up and this is what we want to do, so if we can shake it up with the big teams it would be really cool.”
Born in the year that Russell Ingall and Larry Perkins won the Great Race in a remarkable last to first effort, this weekend will mark Hazelwood’s second Bathurst 1000.
He made his debut in the 161-lap enduro last season as a co-driver for Tim Blanchard, placing 12th.
In 2017 he also won the Dunlop Super2 Series with Matt Stone Racing, so this year he and his team decided on a new challenge and stepped up to Supercars.
Hazelwood sits 26th in the championship and his best result thus far was an 18th at Albert Park. He also switched from a Ford Falcon back to his Super2 winning Commodore VF. It’s been tough, but he's thinking of the bigger picture.
“I'm always enjoying it. No doubt it has been a tough step up for the team and myself,” he said.
“There are a lot of reasons for that, but we are just trying to make the most of the season and essentially are using the last part of our season as a bit of a test session, so we can go into 2019 fully prepared for what lies ahead and I suppose put a big year together.”
Still, that he does not have a championship lead to think about means Hazelwood can push hard at Bathurst.
“Biggest race, biggest honour that Australian motor sport has on offer, so if you have a chance of getting a result, it's definitely one of those races where taking a risk - it's been proven in the past - sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
“But we’ll certainly be going all out to give it our best shot.”
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